AMD Reveals Ryzen APUs, Ryzen 2 and Threadripper 2 at CES 2018

To set most at ease, the APUS will be fully compatible with AM4 motherboards, with only a BIOS updated needed for newer CPU support. This lowers the cost of entry into the Ryzen platform, with tremendous upgrade options available later on.

Zen APUs are coming in Febuary which feature the Global Foundries 14nm process found in the current generation Ryzen CPUs. Both models will feature quad cores, but the Ryzen 5 2400G features SMT, a base clock of 3.6GHz/boost clock of 3.9GHz and 11 Vega CUs for $169. The Ryzen 3 2200G will lack SMT, be clocked at 3.5GHz/ boosts [...]

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January 2, 2018

Intel Adds Core i7-8809G with AMD RX Vega Graphics to Lineup

Several weeks ago, Intel and rival AMD made headlines when the two companies announced that Intel would begin using AMD Vega graphics in some of its mobile CPUs. It appears that the first SKU is finally rolling off the production line with the model name Core i7-8809G.

The Core i7-8809G carries a 4 core, 8 thread CPU. When Intel teased this chip in November 2017, it did so under the moniker “Kaby Lake G”, which suggests that it’ll likely feature Kaby Lake architecture with some tweaks rather than the new Coffee Lake architecture that’s rolling out on some of the newer 8th Generation Core Processors.

The graphics die is the center of [...]

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October 22, 2017

Samsung in Talks to Purchase 10 EUV Production Machines from ASML

In a recent article, Business Korea reports that Samsung is in talks with ASML to purchase 10 EUV production machines at a cost of $176.52 million each.

As semiconductor production processes shrinks below the recently introduced 8nm LPP process, printing chips with the current photochemical etching techniques will become much more difficult resulting in the need for the new EUV production process. Samsung has been aggressively developing chips utilizing EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet) etching technology as they plan on starting production of chips using the 7nm EUV process as early as 2018.

What’s interesting about Samsung’s recent order for EUV [...]

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October 18, 2017

Samsung Readies 8nm LPP FinFET for Production

Samsung has announced today that its 8nm LPP FinFET process has been qualified and ready for production three months ahead of schedule.

According to the announcement, Samsung’s 8nm LPP will bring up to 10% power efficiency and 10% area reduction over the 10nm LPP thanks to the narrower metal pitch. The 8nm LPP node will be Samsung’s last node before transitioning to 7nm EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet).

Samsung states that the 8nm LPP will soon transition into stable mass production using current production techniques used for the 10nm LPP node.

“With the qualification completed three months ahead of schedule, we have commenced 8LPP [...]

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October 4, 2017

TSMC to Build 3nm Fab in Southern Taiwan

Last year, TSMC announced that development for 5nm, 3nm, and even 2nm process nodes were in progress and it appears that everything is going well. TSMC’s 7nm process is on track for 2018 and their 5nm process is on track for early 2019. While details on their 3nm process was relatively sparse, it appears that 3nm is on track as well given a recent announcement from TSMC confirms that they’ve already selected the location for their next generation semiconductor manufacturing.

According to the short announcement, TSMC’s upcoming 3nm fab will be built in the Tainan Science Park in southern Taiwan. TSMC selected the site in order to [...]

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October 2, 2017

AMD Brings Bootable NVMe RAID to Threadripper Via Software Update

In a blog post today, AMD announced support for native bootable NVMe RAID for its x399 HEDT platform.

Now you may ask, what does NVMe RAID bring to the table? Well, AMD highlighted some performance gains in RAID 0 with six NVMe SSDs connected, showcasing a whopping 21.221GB/s sequential read speed and 11.532GB sequential write speeds. Performance scaling is shown to be almost close to linear.

To add the capability, simply update your BIOS for your motherboard and install the latest RAID driver package here. The driver package includes an easy to use GUI software to help you guide though setting up a new RAID array once it detects that you have [...]

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September 27, 2017

AMD 12nm Ryzen Pinnacle Ridge CPUs Rumored to Launch February 2018

According to a report from Digitimes, AMD has revealed to its motherboard partners that it plans to launch its next generation 12nm Ryzen CPUs in February of 2018. The new CPUs will be manufactured on Global Foundries upcoming 12nm process.

The upcoming 12nm Ryzen CPUs will be codenamed Pinnacle Ridge and will feature both a die shrink as well as architecture improvements over current generation Summit Ridge Ryzen CPUs. Like Summit Ridge, Pinnacle Ridge will be divided into Pinnacle 7, Pinnacle 5, and Pinnacle 3. Pinnacle 7 will be launching first in February 2018 followed by Pinnacle 5 and 3 in March 2018. Following these will also be the Pinnacle Ridge low [...]

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September 26, 2017

Intel Launches 8th Generation Coffee Lake CPU Lineup

Following the release of the 8th generation “Kaby Lake-R” mobile CPUs last month, Intel has finally launched its 8th generation “Coffee Lake” CPUs.

Chinese tech site Expreview reports that the six core Intel Core i7-8700K CPU has its overclocking potentials gimped once again as the company has decided to use lower quality TIM rather than solder.

The article states that while the chip itself is excellent and can overclock beyond 4.8GHz without dramatic increases in voltage, heat will be the greatest barrier to achieving this. While Expreview hasn’t posted pictures of the CPU de-lidded, the author attributes the thermal compound as the culprit, stating that the thermal compound applied under the lid is poor quality TIM rather than solder. As a result, those who want overclocks beyond 4.8 GHz or 5 GHz [...]

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September 18, 2017

Mainstream Intel 8-Core/16-Thread CPUs Rumored for 2018

Several weeks ago, an Intel presentation slide was leaked detailing Intel’s upcoming chipset roadmap. The roadmap revealed a previously unknown Z390 chipset, which is a consumer enthusiast chipset coming in the 2H2018.

At the time, little additional details of the upcoming chipset was revealed however, according to a recent forum post on Notebook Review by a representative for system integrator, Eurocom, it appears that the Z390 chipset will support 8-core/16-thread CPUs that Intel may be releasing to accompany the new chipset. If this rumor is accurate, this will be the first time Intel’s mainstream platform will have 8-core/16-thread [...]